Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet silverado 1500. While attempting to make a sudden stop, the driver depressed the brake pedal and the vehicle would not stop. After depressing the pedal a second time, the brakes malfunctioned again and the pedal extended to the floorboard. A crash almost occurred due to the failure. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the brake lines located under the driver side rail had ruptured due to rust and corrosion. The brake lines were replaced and the failure was remedied. The local dealer was not notified. The manufacturer was notified, but no assistance was offered. The VIN was unknown. The failure mileage was 210,000.
2003 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 brakes complaints
Page 2 of 15: complaints 11 to 40 of 429, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet silverado 1500. While driving approximately 15 MPH, the brake pedal was depressed and failed to stop the vehicle. The contact crashed into another vehicle. The air bags did not deploy. A police report was filed. An unknown injury was sustained to the driver of the other vehicle, which required medical attention. The vehicle was towed to approved auto (17 danville rd, plaistow, nh 03865) where a diagnostic test was not performed. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 120,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet silverado 1500. While reversing out of the driveway, the brake pedal was applied and traveled to the floor without warning. The contact called a local dealer (graham chevrolet cadillac, 1515 w 4th st mansfield, oh 44906) and was informed of the repair cost. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the issue. The failure mileage was 137,000.
Just had work done on the truck and in the parking lot of the autoshop my brake line burst causing me to have no brakes. Limped the truck down the street to my work until I could tow it home. There is no reason even with living in a snow state that my brake lines should have failed.
My brake line rusted out causing brake failure and my fuel line rusted out causeing fuel leak. The brakes went out in motion fuel line also.
On 2/20/2017 my 2003 silverado had a total brake failure. Both front and rear brake systems failed at the same time, due to premature brake line failure, caused by brake lines that were not designed to withstand road salt used in michigan, where the vehicle was sold and driven.
Luckily, I was on my street near my house when my brakes completely failed. The brake peddle went right to the floor...I had to use the emergency brake to stop the truck. I found the problem to be rusted out brake lines and when I used the internet I see that this is a common problem with this truck.
Rear wheel brakes, excessive wear
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet silverado 1500. While driving 35 MPH, the brake pedal traveled to the floorboard when depressed. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 121,000. Updated 03/16/17*lj the consumer stated the master cylinder was replaced, but the failure persisted. Updated 08/30/2017
Oct 29, 2016, 120,000miles. Total brake failure from rusted brake lines while driving on rural highway slowing down from driving 55mph. I was able to avoid crashing. There are hundreds of similar complaints here. These vehicles are not safe to drive, if you know of anyone with similar vehicles, warn them.
I have a 2003 silverado and upon arriving home I felt my brake peddle go to the floor and I couldn't stop and backed into my trailer, I got out of the truck and noticed a huge puddle under my driver side wheel. After investigating I found that the steel hydraulic line had rusted & broke. I am disabled with 4 auto immune diseases and cannot afford to put it in the shop so I ordered the part, replaced it and proceeded to bleed the line and found that 3 other steel lines had holes in them or had rusted all the way through. I also have rust all under the truck. I will have to replace the two front support braces as they have rusted all through. At $120 each. So from front to back all the steel lines have rusted. I was blessed to have had this happen in my drive. Had I driven another mile or so I could have been killed. I now have a fear of driving. Being disabled it is taking me several days to repair my vehicle, and still have one line to replace. I purchased my silverado brand new and I live in kentucky so I don't have a great deal of road salt or sea salt. I have owned chevrolet products my hole life. Prior to this truck I had a 1989 silverado purchased new and prior to that I owned a 1971 monte carlo handed down to me and none of these vehicle had any problems with rust like that. This should not be happening to vehicle with this few of years.
Driving along and we approached a round about circle, another vehicle was coming extremely fast which forced me to brake hard, my truck started to brake and then all braking was lost. I slammed the truck into 1st gear and pulled off the road. I looked under the truck and brake fluid was leaking from brake line. I did not have enough brakes to stop the truck. It was extremely dangerous, I'm just glad I was driving and not my son or wife.the truck is stored in a garage and I feel there is no excuse for these brake lines to rust.
Brake line failure.
Brakes failed due to corrosive failure of brake line. $1500 repair bill.
The brake lines have rusted through and caused a failure while driving
My wife and I were driving home a few nights ago. When approaching and intersection the light turned red. I pressed on the brakes to stop and the brake went to the floor. We were out in the middle of the intersection before I could get stopped. Thank god it was late at night and there was not much traffic. If it was in the middle of the day we could have been seriously injured or even killed. I am glad it happened at a slow speed an not on the interstate and no one was in front of us. I pulled over as soon as I could and I could see brake fluid running out from under the drivers side door. I have now going to have pay for a very expensive repair to have all of the brake lines replaced. I beg you for god's sake issue a recall on the trucks before someone is killed.
I was putting truck in reverse when brake pedal went to floor, had to put on parking brake to stop. The check brake system came on. Brake line busted. Has lines looked at and they found all the lines were rusted. Had repairs done for 410.68. The truck was on steep driveway.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet silverado 1500. While driving 20 MPH, the vehicle hesitated to stop when the brake pedal was depressed. The brake pedal traveled to the floorboard before the vehicle stopped. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the brake lines were corroded and caused the brakes to fail. The brake lines needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 130,000. The VIN was not available. Updated 10/13/16*lj
I just bought my truck about a month ago. I was under it changing the oil and I noticed an alarming amount of rust on the frame members and the brake lines. Some of it looks so bad that I am concerned of having either frame breakage or a brake line failing. I have read many other stories of the same thing happening to other trucks. I have not had a failure yet but I believe it is just a matter of time. After reading all of the horror stories from other owners on various web sites, I am terrified every time I drive it that the brakes are going to fail. I cannot afford to spend $3000 to $4000 to have the truck fixed. Especially when I consider it a manufacturer defect of a safety item. Please issue a recall for these problems before people are injured or killed because the frame has broken or the brakes have failed.
My brake lines ruptured. Vehicle has 133000 miles on it. Their is also excessive rusting underbody.
Was traveling east on hwy 158 and pushed on brake pedal at the intersection of zoo road at a red light with cars coming and the pedal when to the floor and the truck brakes grab a couple of short times but did not stop the truck , went thru the intersection just missing a car , smoke was coming from the drivers side of the truck had to push on emergency brake to get the truck stop. Got out and look and a rusted brake line had busted , was traveling about 45 miles an hour when this occurred. .
I bought this truck brand new. I am 77 and a retired former mechanic. The truck has 4 wheel disk brakes and a separate inner drum on the rear brakes for the emergency brake. It is useless! The shoes are very expensive a pain to replace and don't work very well or last very long. A poor engineering design. I am widowed a don't have anyone in my passenger seat very often. The front passenger seat belt tightens on the passenger as I am driving doing normal stop and go traffic. It will not release until the belt is unlatched and rolled all the way back in and then we start over again. When the truck was under warranty I took it to a dealer but they said they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I have tried to find a clip I could use to hold slack in it but have not been successful.
Brake lines rusted and blew out just as I pulled in to driveway,(thank goodness ) as we were just driving down a major downhill grade in a very busy shopping district where we would not have been able to avoid an accident.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 chevrolet silverado 1500. While driving at various speeds, the brakes failed to stop the vehicle. The contact had to apply the emergency brake to bring the vehicle to a stop. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the rear brake line was corroded and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 41,000. Updated 09/27/16*lj **updated 01/04/17*lj the consumer stated the brake line rusted to the point where it ruptured. Updated 01/05/17.
Right front brake hard line failed due to corrosion. Complete loss of brakes. $590 repair bill.
Brake lines completely rusted thru, had to replace all lines, fuel lines recently leaked and upon inspection are found to be completely rust as well, bad material used in these lines, big safety issue with leaking fuel and inability to stop when brakes go out
A friend and I were driving on a very busy street in fort myers, florida at the 45 MPH limit. When traffic slowed for a red light I applied the brakes only to have the pedal go all the way to the floor. Fortunately the street has a wide berm and I was able to steer around traffic and roll to a stop after about 75 yards, crossing 2 business driveways and taking out 1 reflector. The cause was a brake line rupture due to rust. An on-line search for parts revealed this to be a rather common problem that your office is well aware of. I understand such rust happening in the northern states but my truck is a florida vehicle that has made only one winter trip north and I don't recall any snow even then. Though the owner's manual does instruct the owner to inspect (or have inspected) the brake system, no mention is made of rust or that the left front inner fender may need to be removed to see the critical area (for rust). Worse in my opinion, is the dual system which did little to slow my truck when the line failed. While it does stop the truck in normal slow driving, the pedal has to be held all the way to the floor and in no way does it seem like a safe "backup". I understand that recalls or even notices to owners can be expensive and that there may have been no injuries due to the rust problem. But had the street I was driving on not had a berm to escape to or had there been a pedestrian on that berm, or another vehicle in one of the business entrances, my incident could have been very tragic. As is I am still facing a costly and very difficult replacement of all the brake lines. And I'll be looking at every chevy in the affected group as a "time bomb".
Was driving home and I had complete sudden brake failure as I pulled into driveway.
We are replacing all metal brake lines after a second brake line failure on the truck. These vehicles need to be recalled and gm forced to replace the metal tubing. While going 10 miles per hour on a road the brake pedal went completely to the ground and failed one month after a brake repair- this year when in for safety inspections and second line is leaking and we will be getting another failure soon! Recall before more families die. We are thankful this didn't happen on a highway while towing! First failure 5/20/2015
2003 chevrolet silverado pickup truck. Complete 100% brake failure, no brakes whatsoever. Due to brake line corrosion. Crash occurred. Luckily, no one was injured. Truck had recently been in for routine maintenance and inspection 3 months prior. Dealer service dept. Did not report presence of corroded brake lines however other things were reported and I authorized fixing. Since this is known incident I think that this should be a notification to owners. I am lucky no one was hurt and I can't imagine if I was on a freeway or other area where worse things would have occurred. After the collision damage I am having all brake lines replaced at my cost. Vehicle was traveling on a city street, traveling about 35mph, I stepped on the brakes for a routine stop and the brake pedal went to the floor. No brake pressure at all. I could not change lanes due to other traffic. Not enough time to react to get to emergency brake. I rear ended the car in front of me.
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